December 13, 2012

... there's lots of bright, cold... mud. And I don't know what made you lie down in that muddy puddle — again and again. But you brought it home, and you're decorating our house with it... in mid-December. Meade got out the vacuum cleaner, when maybe what we really need is the Christmas tree... in that box, down there in the basement.

49 comments:

I just hit a deer on the drive home from work and still shaken from it. I am surprised that damage to my Lexy is minimal and even not so visible. I hope the animal is alright but it may have taken a beating to its face as it may have caught the left corner of my car. I feel sad for it. I was afraid of it happening as I drove everyday on Beach drive through Rock Creek and it happened tonight.

Thanks, edutcher. I was mortified about the pain I caused that animal. There was no blood -- so let us hope it was just a thud. It didn't happen where I feared it would, in Rock Creek park but a mile away from my home on a residential street. I don't know what the right thing to do when we encounter a deer. May be people could chime in to educate me. It being a residential street and with many cars front and back, I didn't have the high beam on and could not see the deer ahead of time until the light shone in it on the side.

Since this is a dog cafe, I have to get a dog related item off my chest.

New neighbors moved into a house bordering our property a few months ago. Soon afterwards, they got a dog. I don't know them, so cannot speculate why they got a dog. Well, I can: they have young children that, I am sure, had something to do with it.

However, these are the kind of folks that get a dog - then leave it outside all hours of the day - neglected. This poor dog's "boredom barking" tears me up to the point it has ruined my "quiet enjoyment" of my garden and yard.

I am at the point of confronting them with the question: "WHY do you have a dog if you are just going to ignore it?"

I did shelter work for many years in Seattle. I know these types. And I fucking hate them. I'd approach them and offer to walk the dog now and then, but am unwilling to walk past the many "No Trespassing" signs gracing the end of their driveway. The fact they don't think ONE sign is enough is telling.

I have neighbors like that -- one has their dog barking under control now. The other would let the dog loose and it got into the habit of pooping all over my front yard. I had to have an ugly encounter, shocking even with that neighbor for it to stop.

Its not the noise that bothers me so much as the fact I can tell the dog is so very unhappy. I find animal suffering intolerable. If it was the sound of the dog out there playing fetch with the kids, I could live with that.

In terms of neighbors that let their dogs escape to end up in my yard: if it was me and the dog was nice enough, I'd keep it! That will teach 'em.

Robert Griffin III is one of the best new quarterbacks in a long time. He is in a crop of three outstanding rookie quarterbacks this year. Back when I was fixing stuff in the dorms, I worked with a bunch of union guys, one of which commented on how black guys couldn't succeed at quarterback because their ankles were too narrow!

Browndog, you're right. I have grown up in the last few hours. I used to fret about what I would do if it happened and now I know. Human mind is resilient -- we fret about bad stuff but when it actually happens, we bounce back. I don't think the deer got killed, because there is no blood on Lexy and not much damage to it (or should it be her?). I will gladly give up my good karma for the deer's well being.

Kind of chatty tonight, forgive me. Thanks to Ann for putting up a post on Ravi Shankar yesterday. I was not a big fan of his because I was under the mis-impression that he was a sell out to the Western music overlords. But Ann's excerpted paragraph revealed the man had a different agenda and I like it. So reading about him today and his collaborations with Phillip Glass and Zubin Mehta, I came across this. It is a bit bland for my taste. But my husband and I always wondered where was the Indian counterpoint which is so antithetical to Indian ways because it requires planning and rehearsals and deliberation, cooperation and collaboration. May be this could be a start to it.

Whitaker Wright, mining tycoon, was one of the wealthy merchants that build a fabulous estate. A trend at the time was to include an eye-popping tower, garden, pool, fountain, maze, lakes and such. Wright differed from the rest in that his extravagance was hidden under a lake. A poolroom. Room for a pool table. A glass dome under an artificial lake accessed by an island.

It's mostly forgotten. Not open to the public.

Here on Derelict Places four kids visit the underwater poolroom. Sometimes called ballroom. It's amazing it's not leaking. The kids take up in a boathouse and use a two-man inflatable to the island so they must retrieve it with a line. They show this in their video.

Hello! The Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab is run by Dr. Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a dog: What dogs see, smell, and know. Our research group is based in New York City, and we study the behavior and cognition of companion dogs. Read more about us and our research at DogCognition.com. We are presently investigating play between dogs and people, and we need your help (well, you and your dog's help)!